Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1887-12-15


guments.
In Robert Burns. one of the bright
est geniuses that Scotland ever knew,
the balance between volition and pas
sion was uncertain, even when he was
at his best. When his father was near
his end, he said that there was one of
his children whose future filled him
with painful anxiety. Robert heard
the remark. and coming to the bed
side, he said: .'Oh. father! is it me
that you mean?" The dying man said
that it was so, and Robert turned away
with tears streaming down his cheeks.
The father had noted with pride the
genius of his boy; but he had also
noted the strong passions with the
weak will. which might drive him ON
the shoals of life.
But the poet might have lived to
happy and honored old age. had he not
fallen a victim to the conviviality of his
times. Deep drinking weakened his
will and constitution. A bottle and
friend could easily win him from duty
10 drunkenness. He knew his own
! weakness. and prophesied what the
end would be years before it came; yet
he yielded his will more and more to
the fatal habit which enslaved him.
How sadly true is the following stanza
of "A Birds Epitaph' '-descriptiv of
himself-written while he yet seemed
to hrve the disposal of his life i'll his
own hands.
The poor nhabitant below
Was quick to learn and wise to know,
And keenly felt the friendly glow,
And softer flame:
But thoughtiess follies laid him low,
And stand his name.'
The record of his closing years is
very painful reading. because the in
tirmities of his will becomes more and
more evident.
And one of Americas sweetest sing
ers. Edgar Allen Poe. was y man
whose will was so sadly weakened by
alcohol, that there was no safety for
him except in total abstinence. n. p.
Willis thus speaks of him:
''Poe was usually the most quiet,
regular and gent'emanlike of men. re-
markably neat in his person. elegant
and orderly about his work. and who'll
ly unexceptionable in conduct and de-
meanor. But in weak moment,
tempted. perhaps by a friend. or by the
devil, Opportunity. he would take
one glass Of wine or liquor. From that
moment he was another being. His
self-control was gone. An irresistible
thirst for strong drink possessed him,
and he would drink and drink and
drink, as long as he could lift glass
to his lips. If he could not get good
liquor, he would drink bad; all he de-
sired WIS something tierccly stimulat-
ing. He would frequently keep this
up for several days and nights. until,
in fact, his system was perfectly ex-
hausted, and he had been taken help
less and unresisting to bed"
Poets should never touch alcoholic
stimulants or seductive drugs. God
has keyed their souls to suf-
ficiently high pitch without the
aid of such dangerous excit-
ants. The opium habit of the poet
Coleridge, furnishes another pathetic
example of impaired will. He hated
the vice which had entangled itself
about his will, like the serpents about
the struggling laocoon. When his
friend Cott!e begged him to break the
h,h frio1 To
him to the endeavor: he replied: "You
have poured oil into the raw and fest
cring wounds of IN old friends con-
science, Cottle; but it is oil of vitriol
For ten years the anguish of my spirit
has been indescribable, l have prayed.
with drops of agony on my brow
= But there is no hope"
Conceive spirit in he'll, employed in
tracing out for others the road to that
Heaven from which his crimes exclude
him! Coleridge had simply lost will
power His perception of virtue, his
passion for it remained, indeed was in
tensitied by the evil of vice. Yet he
could not will for virtue!
Now it would be easy to add score
of cases to those already given-all of
them men of mark-tO show that in
temperance steadily and fatally
weakens the will.
TO sum up the case: Intemperance
intlamcs the passions and appetites; it
forms habit which may become
stronger than the will; and ut the
same time it steadily impairs the
strength of the will.
These are facts which no one can
reasonably deny; and they show what
dangers Turk in the saying: II can
drink, or / can let it alone" 1t is
sometimes true; but most of the men
who boastingly utter it, drink until
they can not let it alone.
Let us all turn this fallacy of intern
perance into Il Temperance motto.
Do you drink? Then ''let ii alone;" for
only thus can you demonstrate your
power. Have you never used alcohol?
Then "le, IL dlOne," and it will let you
alone.-Rer. 4. r. Tram, an Union
Signal.
Homemade Wine and Cider.